Robert Barone
Robert Barone is a police officer with the NYPD and brother of Ray Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond, played by actor/comedian Brad Garrett. Robert appears in the "King of Queens" episode "Road Rayge" (Season 1, episode #9), along with ELR ''cast mates Ray Romano (as Ray Barone) and Peter Boyle (as Frank Barone). Robert initially lives with his parents Frank and Marie, (and later his wife Amy) directly across the street from his brother, Ray. Robert is very jealous of Ray because Ray is favoured by their mom Marie. For his entire life, he claims to have lived in Ray's shadow, events which possibly lead to his adoption of a somewhat cruel sense of humour, to try and exact a form of belated, if immature, revenge. He is also known to be very passive-aggressive. Robert displays several quirks, and generally strange habits throughout the series, which include touching food to his chin before eating it ("crazy chin"), facing his toothbrush east, separating the "goods" from the "plenty" (the candy Good & Plenty), keeping his left socks in his left drawer and his right socks in his right drawer, eating his foods in alphabetical order, seperating nuts into a peanut group, an almond group, and a cashew group, screaming at pickles, braying voluminously at funerals, sleeping with a tennis racket under his bed as a "ghost swatter", and seperating his M&Ms, among other things. Robert is the first character in the entire series to say the line, "Everybody loves Raymond." He said it in the very first episode, Pilot. Also, his unusual height was a running joke through the series, (he stands at 6' 8½"), He also had a fear of his childhood shoe tree when he was a kid, and thought it was a monkey with an axe hiding in his closet. Like Raymond, he lives in abject fear of his mother and is often unable to take any kind of stand against her. He is, however, occasionally shown to be slightly more assertive where Marie is concerned, once even going into a rage when Marie intentionally interferes in his interview with the FBI in the episode "Lucky Suit." Childhood and Background Robert's parents conceived him before they were married, making him illegitimate, but then his parents got married, making him legitimate. While he was teaching driving class to his family, he reminded Marie "To make sure your first born child is in the car before you pull out of a gas station in New Mexico" reminded that his parents left him in a gas station in New Mexico when he was a child. All through Robert's childhood, and into adulthood, he had been competing with his little brother Ray. He even succeeded in harming Ray, such as breaking his arm. Growing up, Robert had a bed-wetting problem, but it turns out that Ray would pour water in his bed while he slept to make everyone think Robert wet the bed. Robert was married prior to the commencement of the first season, to a stripper called Joanne, whom he divorced for "leaving him for a guy he arrested." (In a later flashback episode, however, the cause of the divorce was changed to Joanne being kicked out by Marie after she says she wants a divorce after Robert finally speaks up against her abrasive behavior). Robert subsequently moved back in with his parents, and became, either inadvertantly or otherwise, a workaholic, to the point of being acknowledged by the NYPD as never being absent from work his entire career. Robert's reputable skills in the field of law enforcement won him an interview with the FBI, but was denied the position due to Marie's deliberate interference. He was injured by a bull, which gored him in the bottom, and had to resign from the police force because of nerves. He took a brief job as a telemarketer, and eventually served a brief tenure as an alarm salesman before returning to the police, helped by Ray. Robert dated Debra's friend Amy for several years, and their relationship survived numerous break-ups, (one of which Ray was blamed for), and they married in 2003. In the episode: "Not so Fast", they were briefly the owners of Frank and Marie's home, when the owners moved to a New Jersey retirement home briefly. Robert bought the house from Frank for $26,000, but they had to live with them when Frank and Marie were kicked out. Also, Robert had a bulldog he named Shamsky, which he named after his favorite baseball player Art Shamsky. Character Development A lot happened to Robert over the course of the series. In the ''ELR season 1 episode entited The Dog, Robert got a dog just like the bulldog he had as a kid. He named this new dog Shamsky Number 2, after his first dog. The dog was only seen in a few episodes, then it seemed to disappear from the show. After growing tired of dealing with his parents for so long, he decided to move out. He lived in an apartment that was over a mile away from them. Soon after, while breaking up an illegal rodeo, Robert was gored in the "upper thigh" (butt) by a bullwhich Ray was immensely insensitive about. During the recovery, he had to move back in with his parents. Around half way through the shows, Robert is promoted from Sergeant to Lieutenant in the NYPD. Having dated many women over the course of the 9 seasons, Robert always had an on-again-off-again relationship with Debra's friend Amy. Finally, in season 7, they got married. In season 9, when Frank and Marie move to a retirement home, Robert and Amy buy their house from them. They live in it for one episode when his parents get kicked out of the home and decide to move back in. So...Frank, Marie, Robert, and Amy all live in the same house. Category:Characters Category:The Barone Family